Wednesday, August 8, 2018

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: When Do Gifts of Money Best Help the Poor?

What is the best way to help the poor? We may face
this question several times a day ---- poverty has many faces.

Suppose you encounter a panhandler on the street. Are
you reinforcing a dependency or meeting an urgent need, if you hand him a
couple of dollars? Are you paying for a hot meal or cheap rum? Is
the hand-off of money intended to ease your own sense of guilt that you have so
much? Or, is it perhaps just to let you get safely past him without
engaging him personally? People who say there is an easy answer might be
failing to listen to either their head or their heart.

One may feel some personal satisfaction when we think we are
helping someone, but can we help them so much that we have
weakened their own desire and ability to gain the freedom of helping themselves
as much as they might? Perhaps we need to ask a few questions, and
fine-tune how we should make our loving gift.

I believe in the well-known slogan: "It is
better to teach a man to fish, than to simply give him a meal!"
Giving the meal is very short-term, momentary help. Teaching
him to fish is a gift that keeps on giving, as it will provide him with many
future meals.

We need to be smart about how we help people, so as to build
up their personal capacity, and thus lessen their dependency on others.

Seeking the "right" balance between help and
dependency is not limited to "churchy" situations. Parents face
this dilemma daily with their children. It often seems easier to do
something for the child, instead of patiently waiting for the child to do what
is required. What is age-appropriate child obedience? Parents often
do not agree on this, even within the same family. I think I was
fortunate because I was the eldest child ---- my parents were much more
forgiving of my slow learning than they were with my younger brother. My
parents were not what popular literature today calls "helicopter"
parents, hovering over their children. But, they learned from experience
and nurtured the long-term goal of developing in each of us as much
self-reliance as we were able to handle.

At Central Presbyterian Church, we try to relieve poverty by
doing more than just giving donations to poor folks. In the spirit
of trying to "teach the poor to fish," we often look for partners
with the skills and programs that teach these "fishing"
lessons. Then we work with the partner by contributing to their financial
resources. For example, in 2017, our CPC Members In Mission Team
contributed from the Lena Willis Bequest, to a not-for-profit organization in
Morristown named Homeless Solutions, Inc. (HSI). Our 2017 grant of
$20,000 was to help them continue their good work of helping their
"guests" rebuild their lives and successfully return to independent
living.

Homeless Solutions, Inc. provides emergency shelter and
transitional housing in Morristown for the homeless and working poor of that
community. They have been helping those in need for over 30 years, and in
2017 served about 400 people. But, importantly, HSI provides much more
than just shelter!

One of the features of their work is the Family Shelter
Program for women and their children, providing case management, independent
living skills training, parenting education, counseling, linkages to medical
care, child care and transportation. Over 50% of those entering this
program are victims of domestic violence. Approximately 25 to 30
families, including over 50 children and 20 single women are served each year.

HSI also has a single-men's program, providing shelter for
as many as 25 homeless men at one time, with about 100 men served
annually. The Men's Shelter Program provides case management services,
including money management training, and assists with benefit enrollment, plus
placement in permanent housing.

One other way that HSI "teaches people to fish,"
is through it's Transitional Housing Program. The purpose of this program
is to support and train families who are making the move to independence.
In order to eradicate the underlying issues associated with recurring homelessness,
structured supervision is provided to foster self-sufficiency. The
participants are housed in ten self-contained apartments.

So, what's the answer? Is merely handing some cash to
poor people an adequate way to help them? It certainly is the most simple
for the donor!! However, CPC does more than just write a check. We
look to fund outside programs designed to change people's lives ---- hopefully
moving them closer to self-sufficiency at a better level. Without CPC's
gift and the financial gift of many others, the folks in Morristown's HSI
programs would probably not be "learning to fish." However, HSI
can rightly claim that it is giving "a hand-up ---- not just a
hand-out." Many lives would otherwise be stuck in dependency.

CPC, by itself, cannot do the on-going, face-to-face work
undertaken by HSI. And HSI does not have the financial resources to
undertake their programs alone. But, working together, CPC and HSI can
make a long-term difference in the lives of many people. We would not
accomplish this if we merely handed out gifts of money directly to the
poor.